WEDDING & ELOPEMENT CINEMATOGRAPHY

DARTMOOR NATIONAL PARK, DEVON

SERGEI & KSENIA

I’m back!!

Week before last, I had the absolute pleasure of (finally) getting to shoot a wedding, my first one since February. The year of 2020 so far has been pretty terrible, let’s be honest, but more on that in a future blog post.

Man did it feel good to finally be back in the wedding game. And it was (quite literally) back with a bang!

Sergei and Ksenia, native Russian speakers living in London, contacted me many months ago when they were planning an elopement to Dartmoor in Devon, just the two of them. They wondered if their plans would translate well to an elopement film, as they really wanted to properly document their special day. They told me all about their plans and to say I was keen would be a massive understatement. I assured them, it would make for a stunningly cinematic wedding film. Trekking across the moors is one of my favourite things to do, so doing exactly that but with a bride and groom on their wedding day sounded absolutely perfect.

Many months later, and after much stress about whether or not the day would actually be able to go ahead, the big day finally came around.

On the morning of the wedding, I arrived at Bovey Castle on Dartmoor, smack bang in the middle of the UK heatwave and a series of days during which the region had been experiencing extreme thunderstorms. The heat was pretty intense, and the couple were understandably a little worried about the storms, when we had a day of activities planned across the national park. I assured them not to worry, we were well prepared with welly boots and big umbrellas in case of downpours, and besides, thundery weather with dark, angry looking skies can lead to extremely moody and atmospheric wedding cinematography.

All preparations plus the ceremony itself took place at Bovey Castle, and it was all perfect. The couple streamed the action live to their nearest and dearest on social media. The ceremony was followed by the release of doves, a trip to the Deer Park via horse and carriage, a visit to the famous Dartmoor Ponies, plus portrait sessions in the castle grounds, as well as at a nearby reservoir. They then sat down for their wedding breakfast and some much deserved chill out time in a nice, cool, private room in the castle. The bride and groom also wrote letters to each other to read on the morning of their wedding, which is always a beautiful touch for any wedding film.

We were very lucky on the day as there was almost constant rumbling of thunder extremely close-by, and the weather radar on my phone was showing torrential rain quite literally in all directions around us all day long, but not a single drop of rain landed on our heads. What a stroke of luck!

All in all, it was an extremely special day. It really doesn’t get more intimate than two people eloping to a national park on their own, and I have to say, I really enjoy the feel of elopement filmmaking. Yes, you do miss out on some of the more lively partying that comes with more traditional, larger weddings, but from a storytelling and videography perspective, it can’t really get much better. You literally get to spend the entire day with the couple, doing cool activities and there’s plenty of time to focus on the story element of the filmmaking, without any distractions or time pressures. Well, the only time pressure being, so much you want to see and do, a lot to cram into one day. But that’s a pretty cool ‘pressure’ to have!

Here’s a preview of their elopement film, with English subtitles. I’m very happy with how this turned out, and it gave me goosebumps as I was editing it, which is always a good sign! I hope you like it.